Smith, Sammartino, Rabichow, and Vogelsang to Battle for Maiden Bracelet in Event #6: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Only four players out of 64 remain in Event #6: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship of the 2022 World Series of Poker at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.
Dan Smith will be facing Italian pro Dario Sammartino, while Kevin Rabichow will be pitted against German pro Christoph Vogelsang on the other side of the bracket. The winner of each contest will play heads-up in the final match for the bracelet and $509,717 top prize.
Although eyes are on the lion's share portion of the $1,512,000 prize pool, each player has secured at least $193,537, with a prize of $315,029 going to the eventual runner-up. A maiden bracelet will soon be won, as all of the remaining contenders have yet to secure a piece of the coveted gold hardware, despite countless impressive results from each of the quartet.
Round-of-16 Action
The day started with 16 players returning to the felt to play eight heads-up matches, with the winner of each making it into the money. Anthony Zinno was the first casualty when his flopped top set left him with no chips against Jonathan Jaffe’s flush.
Phil Ivey was the next to go when running into Kevin Rabichow’s flush, and heads-up specialist John Smith couldn’t advance past Dylan DeStefano. Chance Kornuth then defeated Patrick Kennedy, and Sean Winter knocked out Matthew Gonzales with a superior rivered straight.
Dan Smith was victorious in his match against Alex Foxen after a hard-fought battle, and Dario Sammartino defeated William Stanford following a back-and-forth match. The all-German affair was the last to be decided in the round, and eventually, it was Christoph Vogelsang to advance against 2021 Main Event champion Koray Aldemir.
Round-of-8 Action
Rabichow and DeStefano agreed to begin their quarterfinal match earlier than scheduled as they had both advanced early in the day. It wasn’t long before Rabichow punched his ticket into the final day, propelled by a huge pot with a straight over trips.
Kornuth took an early lead in his match with Sammartino before taking a hit. He started to get back to even stacks, but ran his pocket jacks right into Sammartino’s pocket queens, securing the semifinal spot for the Italian pro.
Jaffe and Smith battled it out and swapped chips back-and-forth before Smith started to pull ahead. Jaffe got the rest of his chips in with pocket sevens against Smith’s ace-king, and a river king ended the battle.
Vogelsang and Winter were the last duo to finish their heads-up match, and they continued for around two hours after the conclusion of the previous match. Eventually, Vogelsang surmounted a commanding lead and Winter got the rest of his chips in with ace-four against ten-nine. Winter was drawing dead as his opponent turned two pair, and the German player was the last to secure his spot into the semifinals.
Road to the Semifinals
| Winners | Dan Smith | Dario Sammartino | Kevin Rabichow | Christoph Vogelsang |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round of 64 | Jake Daniels | Matthew Steinberg | Daniel Negreanu | Benjamin Reason |
| Round of 32 | Laszlo Bujtas | Cary Katz | Masato Yokosawa | Joao Vieira |
| Round of 16 | Alex Foxen | William Stanford | Phil Ivey | Koray Aldemir |
| Round of 8 | Jonathan Jaffe | Chance Kornuth | Dylan DeStefano | Sean Winter |
In the semifinals, each player will start with 2,400,000 in chips, blinds will begin at 6,000/12,000 to provide 200 big blinds at the start, and levels will be 20 minutes each. The final day is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. local time on Saturday, June 4, and is slated to be streamed on the PokerGO platform. Stay tuned as PokerNews continues to bring updates until a heads-up champion is crowned.